GAME 19: Grisslies Play on Sunday, it can Happen

STANDINGS

These are updated after Tuesday nights games.  They are VERY unofficial, so please don't treat them as gospel. 

INTRO

Ahhhh....the Hot Tub Woody's. I love playing these guys. We beat them 14-5 on May 24th to send them to 0-4 on the season. I'm glad we got them that day, because they reeled off 7 wins in a row immediately after. Lest you think my "love playing these guys" comment has anything to do with me thinking its an easy win, you couldn't be more wrong. I think the Grisslie record against them since I've been in the league is hovering around .500. They are one of those teams (like many I guess) that enjoy the ebb and flow of good natured ribbing and aren't really impacted by the score of any particular game. A fair and well played game is generally a good game for all regardless of the outcome.

The Woody's 'seemingly' remarkable turnaround isn't exactly shocking. Teams do this all the time. Start bad, end well; or start well and end bad. What you try your best not to do is go from bad to good to bad. I don't believe that the Hot Tub Woody's are in any danger of that. They might experience a couple of losses before season's end, but we won't see a "slump".

So why the turn around?

Oh, I'm sorry...do you find this picture to be inappropriate?

I told you, no more Mr. Nice-Guy!  And I don't want to be accused of ONLY

picking on Wild.

Good question. We know its NOT coaching!

We also know that a number of players have significantly improved their hitting from last year, including; Andre Comeau, Phil Glecof and Kim Peterson. That's great and they all make a positive difference. Actually, except for Phil probably. His improvement likely only offsets the attitudinal issues.  Honestly, its "Derryl Gaudet" show all over again with this guy. Anyway, that aside, there are three players on that team that we really need to talk about.

1. "The" Art "of hitting" Sagert - up .233 points from last year.

2. Mike "the talk show" Douglas - up .208 points from last year.

3. Doug "By DeSea or by" DeLand - up .212 points from last year.

Whoever you are reading this....Imagine that next year you going to hit 200 points better than this year!  Wouldn't that feel incredible?  Then just think that these three have done better than that.  Its sick!  Art alone should leave everyone 40 year old embarrassed to pick up a bat.  Hitting .811 for the season?  Hitting .841 over his last 10 games?  Hitting .909 over his last 5 games?  The only adjective I have for this guy is, WOW! (For you literary aficionados, "wow" isn't officially and adjective, its actually an interjection.) 

Consider that all the teams are more or less 'equal' after the draft. These guys are now projected to end up with a combined 68 hits MORE than their peer group over the season. That's nearly 3 more hits per game that you were reasonably expecting based on track record. One time on base for each of them ever single game! That's not easy on an opposition's defense. 

I'm not suggesting a witch hunt here, but checking for corked bats might be prudent. Actually, that's probably not fair. I take that back. Their sudden and quite remarkable turn around probably has more to do with their captains sparing no expense to ensure that their guys are well tended to and healthy. I've always admired Jeff and Ed for that. Sure lots of captains have genuine concern for their teams but these two will not hesitate in going the extra mile. In fact, they even brought in a team physician this year. A Dr. Galea? Never heard of him myself, but he seems to be working wonders. Ben Johnson was quoted as saying, "DeLand's new found speed is ridiculous!"

And don't let anyone discount the Dave "Billy The" Kidd factor because this guy is a top drawer gunslinger. His knuckle ball (when on) is insane. And I only say "when on" because I've seen him have a bad day (1) in the wind. However, that dead fish, floating, twisting, cork-screwing, knuckling, butterfly is near impossible to hit. Don't believe me? Here's what some of people from around the league have said:

Kim Peterson (HTW - Dave's personal catcher): You don't catch his knuckler, you defend yourself against it.
Al Hayward: (HTW - Back up catcher) The knuckleball? Its not a big deal catching it. You just wait for it stop rolling, pick it up and throw it back to the Pitcher.
Paul Piellusch (Beer Bros.): Trying to hit that guy is like trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks
Chuck Cragg (Wild): I never worry about it. I just take my three swings and go sit on the bench. I'm afraid if I ever think about hitting it, It'll mess up my swing for life.
Mark Doyle (Beer Bros.): Trying to hit a knuckleball thrown for a strike is like throwing a butterfly with hiccups across the street into your neighbor's mailbox
Scott Peters (Banshees): Knuckleballs suck
Steve Ross (Beer Bros.): Strikeouts, and by extension, the knuckle ball are boring. Beyond that they're fascist. The Hot Tub Woody's need to generate more ground ball outs, its more democratic.

Make no mistake the Hot Tub Woody's are a force.  Their season started with "oh-oh, is this the 2010 Cleats again?", to, "That's nice, they got a couple of wins" to now being the second hottest team in the league!

Good luck to the Woody's and their assorted medical personnel.  At least until late September!  This team looks like a "Final 4" contender. 

THE SPEECH

Well...this one is original. Its clever. Its pretty well written. But its also pretty embarrassing. Rob likes to do this to me now and again.  You see, a couple of weeks ago the Tottenhamodtimers.ca "Webmaster of his Domain" added the Grisslies into his list of "hot teams". At the time we were in a 3-4 stretch. I think he may have been referring to the Frizzlies that play in Beeton. We get their mail ALL the time.

Anyway, since that appeared, we haven't been able to pull Robert Farah, Esquire off the ceiling. Suddenly he thinks we're the Dusty Cleats or Hot Tub Woody's.  I talked him out of doing "Hot Blooded", "Hot for Teacher" and "Hot Child in The City" this week. He tried to put in "Hot 'n Cold" but thankfully the Katie Perry ban is still on. When he tried Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" I drew the line.

Me: Rob, I'm sure the "hot" team comment was an error, you've got to stop.
Rob: Are you calling Steve Ross a liar?
Me: That's not what I said, I think it was just a mistake. We're really not playing THAT well.
Rob: I don't think so. I think we're on fire! You know what we should do?
Me: What?
Rob: Lets start planning the parade route!
Me: Okay, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Chill out, relax, just do a song mentioning some names of people and not about us winning. We'll only get embarrassed if you start bragging!  You know how that stuff always back fires.
Rob:  This is exactly like the swordfish I had, have I ever told you about that?
Me:  You mean, have you told me today?  No, but I'm familiar with the story.  How is this like the swordfish?
Rob:  Swordfish?  What were we talking about?
Me:  Seriously, please!  Nothing about how we're going to win and lay waste to the league; just something nice and simple okay?
Rob: Fine. You're a fun sucker.
Me: Nice.

So this is the song that Rob came up with 10 minutes before game time. By the way, its to the tune of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Which is by the band that Paul McCartney used to be in BEFORE Wings.  Music HERE

Grisslies Play on Sunday, It can Happen

Picture yourself on a Sunday in September
Its late in the day with darkening skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
Its the finals and jackets are the prize

Blackberry shaped flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the Wild but the sun's in their eyes
And they're gone

Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Aaaaahhhhh...

Farah heads down to a bridge by a fountain
Where Argue is bar - b - q - ing Dusty Cleat pies
Sir Rob Hayward smiles as we watch all the home runs
That arc so incredibly high

Joe Alfred's taxi appears on the shore
Waiting for the game of the day
Climb in the back with Jimmy Mannell
And you're gone

Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Aaaaahhhhh...

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With Jimmy the Wad with his shoes nearly tied
Suddenly someone is there at the turn style
Its Freddy Mercury with a gleam in his eye

Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Grisslies play on Sunday it will happen!
Aaaaahhhhh...

THE GAME

VS.

Well, this game was a relief in a lot of ways.  It brought an end to a 9 game stretch where we played 7 teams that were .500 or better.  In that string of games we were 5-4, not terrible, not great, just sort of okay.  Even including the 2 teams that weren't .500, the average team that we played was 10 - 7 with a .578 winning percentage.  Being down our short stop for the last 6 of those games and with a team batting average at the bottom of the league (by a lot) its pretty amazing we had the record we did.

Now we enter the tail end of our schedule, the last 5 games.  We have no games left against .500 teams, the average team we'll meet is 6 - 12 (based on today's record) with a .333 winning percentage.  This league being what is it, we'll probably go 0 - 5.  Outside of the Dusty Cleats, the only trend that is safe, is that there is no trend.

Now onto the game against the Hot Tub Woody's who have been scorching hot at 11-2 in their past 13 games.   Let me say that we didn't see the best of the Woody's on this night.  They were without Clayton and Andre and that made a huge difference.  One or two guys does not make your team, but it can seriously disrupt your regular defensive alignment.  

The game opened with the Grisslies putting 2 runners on in the first inning but plating nothing.  The Woody's first innings was shockingly started by "The" Art "of hitting" Sagert who got his first of four hits in four at bats on the night, but the inning quickly fizzled. 

Argue, Muirhead, "Mickey" Mannell, and Rene Stephane Simard scored in the second for the Grisslies while the Hot Tub Woody's were set down in order.  In the second the Grisslies would  turn the first of three double plays on the night. 

The game opened up in the third as the Grisslies batted around and scored six.  Two more in the fourth and seven in the sixth finished the Grisslie scoring coming in with 19 runs. 

The Woodsmen seem to have trouble hitting their stride on this night, but they did give us some glimpses of the team that had been tearing up the league for the last 13 games.  They scored 4 in both the fourth and seventh innings as Art (toying with the nickname City TV, because he hits EVERYWHERE) Sagert, Dan Routledge (needs a nickname) and Phil Gle(club)coff all scored in both innings.

The Grisslie defense was aided by the double plays and terrific catches by Stephane and Bill Sallustio in left and right respectively.

The Grisslies now climb to 11 - 8 and the Hot Tub Woody's  are a half game up on us 11 - 7. 

Please check out the 3 stars, and we'll see you tomorrow night at 8:00 at Keogh Park for Fan Appreciation Night!!!